iTunes used to store a list of filenames associated with backup files in the Manifest.plist file, but in iOS 4.0 it has moved this information to a Manifest.mbdb

You can see an example of this file by making a backup with your iOS 4.0 devices and looking in your ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder (Look inside the subfolders with the most recent date)

Here's a screenshot of what the file looks like in a text editor:

How do I parse this into a Cocoa application so that I can update my (free) iPhone Backup Extractor app (http://supercrazyawesome.com) for iOS 4.0?

I have the same question. I tried SQLite, Berkeley DB, serialized NSDictionary and a few other things. Please update this if you figure it out. There also is a dbx file which seems to be an encrypted format.
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John WrightJun 22 '10 at 19:02

Just a note; once you have determined which file is the consolidated.db file, if you have a Verizon phone, your data will reside in the CdmaCellLocation table, and not the CellLocation table (which is empty). Just in case no one figured it out =)
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user718128Apr 21 '11 at 1:15

They are part of Markus Stenberg's python libraries: <employees.org/~mstenber/>; will lead you to a partial set of them. Unfortunately, even with those, you will encounter other missing files (?). Copy and pasting galloglass' works more easily - but is derivative. Thanks to all!
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westsiderApr 21 '11 at 1:37

Great. Not surprisingly, at least for me it is magazine apps that eat most backup space. (I have purchased a bunch of New Yorker and Vanity Fair issues on my iPad.) But what is infuriating is that these magazine apps keep individual images as separate files on the device. Makes the backup go very slow.
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tmlApr 21 '11 at 7:06

Ha ha, in some cases the New Yorker app even has the SVN data for articles... I see files like AppDomain-com.condenet.newyorker::Documents/issues/The New Yorker/396efb8c-fcdd-4997-8122-2e2bdc3940e5/1700_talk_surowiecki_110328/images/.‌​svn/prop-base/101011_r20103_p280.jpg.svn-base
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tmlApr 21 '11 at 7:09